


Character Development.

by Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels), valuna



Series: Novel Approach [3]
Category: British Actor RPF, Dracula 2000 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-01-25
Updated: 2005-01-25
Packaged: 2017-10-03 06:18:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannamichaels/pseuds/Lanna%20Michaels, https://archiveofourown.org/users/valuna/pseuds/valuna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This follows about three or four months after Initial Conflict and Plot Twist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Character Development.

"Jon, are you listening to me?"

The voice breaks through Jonny's reverie. "Huh?" He looks across the desk at Margaret, his publicist. "Yeah. I'm listening. You want me on the morning talk shows. You know I hate them."

"Yes, but you need to do them. It's," she says, thought interrupted by the ringing phone. She answers it. "Sure. I'll tell him." She hangs up. "Ger's on the way in with the book."

The book's finished, final edits done and it's ready for the stores. The publisher has galley copies for Jonny to look at, so he's brought himself down to London for a few days. It's been months since he saw Gerry, and that weekend hadn't been perfect. There'd been sex, but it hadn't gone anywhere and the communication between them since then has been abnormally professional.

"Jon, you're drifting again."

"Sorry. Just thinking." Jonny shifts in the chair. "I'll do one show."

"You'll do more than one," Gerry says as he walks in. He puts the book on the table and leans over to give Margaret a kiss on the cheek. "You'll do as many as possible without it seeming like we're trying to shove you down people's throats."

Jonny smiles, weak grin. He's being tag-teamed now. "You know I don't like them," he says, "and I never do them well. Always come off like the wonder boy." He reaches over, pulls the book to him, pretends to study the cover as if he hadn't given approval for it months earlier. "You do 'em."

"You are the wonder boy. All you need are the tights and cape." Gerry taps the cover. "Your name, Jonny. Your book, not mine."

_If I'm the fuckin' wonder boy, then why can't I get you?_ Jonny grins. "Next book you get half credit, then," he says, "so you can do the shows."

"Quit squabbling," Margaret says, not fooled by either one of their demeanors. "Ger, be a good editor and take the author to lunch, out of my hair so I can get his schedule lined up."

"Yes, mistress." Gerry salutes her and then tugs Jonny's hair. "C'mon, wonder boy. There's a fast food place with your name on it."

Okay, so Jonny knows the tug on his hair _shouldn't_ slam straight into his cock, but it does. "Yessir," he spits out, grabbing up his jacket as they head out the door. "I don't get a pub lunch even?"

"No, you don't. You get bribery." Gerry waves to Margaret as they leave. "Cheap food."

"How's cheap food gonna bribe me?" Jonny nods to a few other editors he knows as they make their way to the main staircase. "And why do I need bribing? Margaret'll make the schedule. I'll follow it and complain."

"I don't want you to complain. I want you to smile and smile and charm everyone in sight."

"Oh, then you're going to _have_ to buy me a pub lunch, Gerry." Jonny bounces off the bottom stair into the building's foyer. "I don't give smiles for Big Macs."

_You give 'em for shags?_ "Fine. Buy you a pub lunch." Gerry smirks. "Anyone ever teach you the wonders of bargaining?"

"No. Why? Could I get more than lunch?" They're on the street now, heading toward the river. Jonny's turned, walking backward. "I'll bargain for a snog."

"What'll you give me for that?" Gerry turns Jonny's around. "Book signings?"

"Book signings." Jonny sighs, lets himself be turned and put on the forward path. "Yeah, one signing for every three snogs."

"Two signings. One and a half each." Gerry pushes Jonny forward. "And you have to look like you're enjoying it."

"No way. For me to fake it, I gotta get two snogs."

"Two for one, then," Gerry concedes. "But you have to smile."

Jonny spins on heel. "Yessir, all smiles." He drops back and falls into step with Gerry. "So, how you been?"

"Busy. Very busy. You?"

"Not much. Working through plotting for the next book. Doing a little renovation on the house." Jonny shrugs. "You should come up, take a long weekend away from the city."

"I could." That sounds like fun. Go to Jonny's house, be fucking awkward, maybe tumble into bed and not talk about it again. "What've you been doing to it?"

"Kicked out my bedroom, bumped into the room next to it with the bath, created this glass block shower and then a study on the other side. Don't have to run back downstairs to work anymore." Jonny glances up at the pub on the right. "This place do? Or you want something else?" _Like lunch in the hotel in bed with me._

Gerry looks up. "Yeah, this place works." He doesn't say that he likes the sound of the remodeling. He thinks he'd like to spend the weekend there, curled up in the bed with Jonny. "You want a drink?"

"Pint would be good." Jonny looks around as they enter, spots a couple of clear tables toward the back. "You grab it, I'll get a table. And order me a pastie, will you, whatever they've got on special."

"Sure thing." Gerry makes his way to the bar and orders two pints and a few other things. He takes it back to the table and sets it down. "There. That should keep." Enough bribery for interviews and smiles.

Jonny picks up his beer, takes a swig, then downs a couple inches of it. "Oh, that hits the spot. Tired of haggling with Margaret. Much better to be bribed by you."

"The joys of publicity." Gerry grins and takes a gulp of his pint. "She pushes you around, and I draw naughty cartoons in the margins."

"I prefer your margin scribblings to her pushing." Jonny grins. "You hit me if I say I've missed you?"

"Not in public," Gerry says. "Maybe in private. If you asked enough."

There it is. Innuendo. What'd been missing at the end of their last weekend. "So, if I ask in private," Jonny says, picking up his pastie and biting into it, "real sincere, you'd hit me? Like on the shoulder or such."

Gerry leans in close and whispers in Jonny's ear. "Like on the arse." He licks around the curl and pulls back, smirking.

Jonny blushes, faint, just the touch of heat, and tries not to choke as he swallows the meat and potatoes of his lunch. "Okay." He sets down his pastie and picks up his beer, taking a long, slow drink. It's not what he expected. Anticipated having to do that whole top thing again. "Do we have to wait till you come to my house?"

"No time to get a room." Gerry crosses his arms. "What'll you give me for a shag? How many cities on a book tour?"

"That's cruel." Jonny settles back into his chair, pint still in hand. He thinks, stays quiet for a few minutes. "One shag gets you New York. It'll take two to get me to LA."

"What about a weekend of all your dreams coming true?"

"A weekend?" Jonny takes another inch off his beer. "That'll get you Chicago, Miami and all stop in-between." He shrugs, grins. So he sucks at negotiation and can't resist the bribe. "Margaret approve this level of enticing authors into capitulation?"

"Margaret doesn't ever have to know." Gerry grins. "Must keep up the reputation of being the miracle-working editor, you understand." And it's no hardship at all to keep fucking Jonny. "What's your poison?"

"Miracle worker. Yeah." Jonny looks at Gerry, confused. "Poison?"

"Preference," Gerry elaborates. "Dream weekend, Jonny. Whatcha want?"

"Oh, that. Um," Jonny starts, pauses, thinks on the right wording, "you shagging me, and the spanking would be nice and a bit more kink if you've a mind for it."

"I've a mind." Gerry takes a sip of his beer. "What kind of kink?"

"Cuffs. Ropes." Jonny'd tried those with Sean. It'd taken as well as explaining to a Yank that it wasn't soccer, it was football. "The whole bondage route. I got a high pain threshold."

Gerry nods. He'd figured. "Giving or taking?"

"Taking. Definitely." That's a no-brainer answer for Jonny. "I mean, much as I enjoyed the last time, and if you want to tell me to top you, I can, but it's not really my thing."

"Not my thing either." Gerry shrugs. "So, cuffs, ropes, what else?"

Jonny's a bit confused, but he's going on the assumption Gerry means he doesn't like being topped. "You want a laundry list of toys I'd like to play with?" he asks, cocking his head. "Or want me to scribble out my fantasies?"

Gerry shrugs. "Just what you're thinking, or what you want. I like to come prepared."

"I want _you_ doing whatever your imagination can conjure up," Jonny says, "but I wouldn't mind if it included candles and leather and riding crops are nice."

"Leather and riding crops are very nice," Gerry agrees. He looks down at his mug. "We done here?"

"Yeah." Jonny takes another quick swig of beer. "Author fed and bribed. We can leave."

"Good boy." Gerry grins. "What have I bargained out of you so far? Book tour, interviews? Damn, I'm good."

"Modest, too." Jonny pushes back from the table, stands up. "I'll tell Margaret you've earned a raise."

"You do that." Gerry rubs Jonny's shoulder. "I'll pamper you and fuck you over the weekend."

"Not that I'm complaining," Jonny says when they're out of the pub and walking down the sidewalk, "but what changed? Few months ago, we were barely speaking when you left. Now I'm getting weekend offers."

"Can we just say I came around and leave it at that?" Gerry tosses something in the garbage can. "Or that you're looking very fuckable lately?"

"Sure." Jonny wonders if he should question it. Probably not. "Must be the new glasses."

Gerry shoots him a look. "Yeah," he says slowly. "Entirely your glasses." _Or maybe I've just come around at last.  
_


End file.
